The UW-Madison administration continues to grapple with the balance between physical acts of social justice activism and COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
In a UW News article, Dean of Students Christina Olstad stated, “As with most things in society and on our campus right now, COVID-19 with it added complications and considerations. More than ever, we hope students will work with us to ensure that any protests, rallies or other mass gatherings can be undertaken with the health and safety of the participants at the forefront.”
Amid concerns about controlling the spread of COVID-19 on campus, all in-person gatherings, including protests, must abide by university policies related to COVID-19. This includes requiring attendees to wear appropriate face coverings and to maintain a physical distance of six feet from others.
“Whenever we have advanced knowledge of a planned demonstration/protest we reach out to the organizers and inform them on the policies/guidelines so they can have a safe and successful event and not run afoul of University conduct codes,” said Special Projects Coordinator for Student Affairs Mick Miyamoto. “We encourage students to exercise their first amendment rights and commend their passion towards making this a more just world.”
Guidelines from the County Health Officials have been included to promote COVID-19 health and safety precautions.
The University policy stresses that protests and demonstrations that impede or disrupt the academic mission, threaten research, interfere with the free speech of others or threaten campus or personal safety will result in a response to ensure compliance with University rules.
Some examples of disruptive behavior include but are not limited to blocking the vision of others in any manner, producing noise that interferes with the ability of others to hear, turning off lights in a room, using laser pointers or facsimile weapons, setting off alarms on phones and assuming actions that do not comply with public health directives issued.
“I think that it provides a not exhaustive list of things that under most circumstances might be inappropriate” says Amol Goyal, student representative on the Protest Administrative Review Team (PART) and President of the Campus Area Neighborhood Association, in response to the list of disruptive behaviors.
Goyal discusses the differences between actions that are deemed as disruptive by the University. He includes bringing facsimile weapons to an event as an example of a more extreme disruption and producing noise at an event as a less extreme disruption.
“I think that it might be possible for someone to still feel intimidated by these guidelines and that’s a good point of feedback for PART because we will continue to re-evaluate these guidelines and see where they might be intimidating or inconsistent with what students thought was free speech and so on” Goyal explained.
Goyal addresses the concerns of many student activists who are trying to maximize awareness of social injustices while complying with health and safety policies. Some students may feel as if these guidelines impede on protests’ full effects. Others seek a medium between in-person activism efforts and COVID-19 protocols.
“It is our role as student leaders within student government to hold administrators accountable when they engage with protestors before, during, or after protests. We want to make sure that when students protest their events are facilitated in a way that is safe as campus asks but also in a way that their voices are heard,” Goyal says.
“I just think that right now it’s just unsafe to protest, but at the same time, none of that should impact students' ability to gather and produce demonstrations. I think that is something the University is allowing students to do and I really hope that they would continue to do so no matter what.”
UW-Madison acknowledged its history of student activism on various social justice issues, such as the Vietnam war protests in the 1970s and civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s. UW-Madison leaders have made clear that they believe in the rights of free speech, free expression and assembly for student activists.
Last week, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor and Interim Deputy Chancellor for Diversity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Cheryl B. Gittens released a statement addressing their concerns about the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday Aug. 23.
Reesor and Gittens offered sympathy and expressed their expectation for a full investigation for everyone involved in the shooting.
They also encouraged students to reach out to campus resources such as the Dean of Students Office, Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement (DDEEA), University Health Services, the Multicultural Student Center and the Employee Assistance Office for support if they would like to process relative emotions or ideas.
The Multicultural Student Center hosted a virtual processing space on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27. This was intended as an opportunity for students to connect, to provide each other with resources and to create a community for solidarity, healing and justice. These events were open to all UW-Madison students.
When describing the outcome of the processing space, Director of the Multicultural Student Center Claudia Guzman stated “Students expressed gratitude for the space, not only for the opportunity to participate, but also for the simple fact that we offered something to acknowledge the tragic event and its impact on our students, campus and communities.”
“I was really happy with our ability to pull those processing spaces together so quickly with collaboration and support from University Health Services, the Office of Inclusion Education and the Dean of Students Office. I think that speaks to the level of care and variety of resources we wish to provide to UW-Madison students, and I consider that kind of collaborative, student-centered effort an indicator of success,” Guzman explained.
Guzman reiterates the MSC commitment to aid students amid these challenging times.
